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Thursday, September 27, 2012

I was running errands in Carmel the other day (can someone
tell me why Indy doesn’t have a party supply store?) and decided to stop into
Blu Moon café. It is one of those places
that has been on my radar for awhile, but I just hadn’t managed to get in
there. It is a casual place where you
order at the register and they bring you the food. The guy who was working at
the register was really nice and helpful and helped me make up my mind about
what to order.

I got the blt with avocado (around $7).Not a big surprise since this is one of my
favorite sandwich combos in general.And
this one was very good. The ingredients were all really good, and there was a substantial
amount of a garlic aioli that really added to the flavor of the sandwich.The bacon was nice and crisp (and plentiful) and the tomato
and avocado was ripe.The sandwich was
on thin sliced bread that was pressed in a Panini press making the whole thing
warm and toasty. If I could improve it, I would probably just make the bread a little thinner. It ended up being a fairly bready sandwich. although it was a good quality sandwich overall.

little sample of the egg salad

While I was ordering I also asked if I could try their egg
salad, as I am a fan of egg salad in general, although I am kind of picky about
it (tons of celery is a big turn off for me). This one looked unique though—yellower
than most and I could see there was capers in it. It was actually really nice big pieces of the
boiled egg with Dijon mustard and capers as well as some finely diced red
onion. It was really quite good. I think
next time I would get that in something. I liked the slight variation from the
standard egg salad.

Blu Moon seems to be one of those places that is making a
good effort to make interesting food with really good and fairly healthy
ingredients. The people are really friendly, and the place is pretty
welcoming. I think it is the kind of
place that Carmel is probably somewhat lacking in. I would really be interested to hear what
other people have eaten there and what others’ experiences have been. So let me know will ya?

Monday, September 24, 2012

Hubby and I realized we hadn’t yet been to Meridian since
the chef change, and after a friend texted me about the steak tartare she was
eating there, I knew it was time. I am a
sucker for steak tartare (or tuna tartare, or whatever tartare).

Hubby and I took advantage of the lovely weather we were
having (hello, autumn, I have missed you) and sat out on their patio. Alone for
quite awhile (the place was just not very busy), but it was still lovely.We were mostly excited by the appetizers, which
if you read a lot you know is often the case, and decided to split
several.We started with the prime beef
tartare (I think it was around $12) which was very good.The beef was, well, raw and nice and tender
and flavorful, and when you added the egg yolk on top, it turned into a
wonderful creamy mix.You need something
to cut the richness, and there was some capers and onion mixed with the
meat.It was served on top of a
horseradish cream, which was the right amount of heat to help as well, although
I wished there had been just a little more of it.The ripe bits of tomatoes were a nice acidic
complement as well, and we LOVED the crispy fried garbanzo beans.We only regretted sort of stirring them in a
little too soon, because they lost their crispness and they had been so great
when you bit into a crispy one.Next
time (and I will get it again if it is on the menu) I would scoot them aside
and parcel them out with each bite.The
flatbread served with it had a nice flavor too and the crispy edges were my
favorite part.I would love them to be a
little crispier as I am partial to things like potato chips with my tartare,
but that’s just my own preference.You
really didn’t care that much about the vehicle since the rest of it was so
good.

We then got two more appetizers to share—the shrimp and
grits ($13.25) and the hot/cold smoked salmon ($11.50). The shrimp also featured an egg, a perfectly
cooked sunny side up egg that was quite honestly the highlight of the
dish. Not to say the rest wasn’t good,
because it was—the whole dish was great. There were two large shrimp on top of
nice creamy grits with thin asparagus spears, melted leeks (one of my other
favorite ingredients), that egg and little prosciutto. It was like a perfect
breakfast—a little ham, a little egg, and some grits. Oh and shrimp. Honestly,
I would be hard pressed to not get this again as well.

Hubby says the salmon was one of the menu items that has
been on the Meridian menu for awhile, but honestly I can’t tell you if he is
right or not. I can tell you that we
enjoyed it although probably not quite as much as the other two dishes. It is ball of herby creamy cheese with the
hot smoked salmon mixed in—it has that smokier flavor. Layered around the ball was the cold smoked
salmon making a lovely presentation. The salmon was on top of red onion
marmalade and drizzled with herb oil. I liked the marmalade for a little bit of
sweet and tartness with the smoky salmon. It was served with nicely oiled and
toasted sliced of bread, which was nice and thin to maintain all the flavor of
the salmon. It is a very generous
portion and probably a better portion to share with more than 2 people—it was
the only thing we didn’t finish (and lick the plate). We also had a side of the fries ($5.50), which are really quite good. Our server told me one of their secrets is using a little sugar with the salt. They didn't taste sweet to me at all, but they were really good--fresh and crisp and plenty salty. They didn't really need the ketchup that came with them and they were good for dipping up leftover sauce from the other plates.

We had the classic Meridian dessert-- one which I know has
been on the menu for awhile because I have had it before—the fresh made
doughnuts.As always, you can’t really
go wrong with freshly made hot doughnuts.They are shaken in cinnamon sugar and served with malted coffee to dip in.It’s a good one to share
and hit the spot for a sweet ending, even if they aren’t mind blowing or
anything.

We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and felt like with three
appetizers between us, we had more than enough food.I am imagining the entrées are huge.I was a little concerned with their business though—the
restaurant was pretty empty (including the patio) and a friend who went
recently on a Saturday said the same thing.Our server, while exceptionally knowledgeable about the food and the
chef, was almost over the top in the amount of information he gave (it was a
situation in which I am pretty sure he assumed we knew nothing about food which
I find annoying).But the food alone
will make us return for sure.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

This was a place that had been on my list for quite awhile
and then randomly, several different people mentioned it to me in the course of
a week, so I took that as a sign (it doesn’t take much for me when it comes to
trying a new restaurant). I was a little
surprised when we walked into the place—I was expecting a basic lunchy-sandwich
kind of place and it is actually quite large, nicer than what I expected, has dinner AND beer and wine.

The menu is pretty big too, and a lot of things sounded good
to me, but being in an eggy mood, and always slightly intrigued by any taco I
see on a menu, I tried 2 of the breakfast tacos ($3.20 each for the several
varieties). I had the # 3 and the #5 and
enjoyed both quite a bit. The #3 is egg,
blue cheese, bacon and green onion mayo.
This was probably my favorite although I liked them both. It was very creamy—between the blue cheese
and the green onion mayo—and it had that salty kick from both which kept it
unique and not bland at all. Honestly, I
didn’t get a lot of bacon in this looking back, but honestly, it didn’t really
need it.

The #5 had bacon, egg, white cheddar, potato, and
jalapeno-cilantro sour cream.It was
slightly more of the traditional taco flavors. Again, I didn’t get a ton of
bacon, and the potato showed up mainly in the last two bites of the taco.I might have enjoyed a bit more bacon in this
one, as it was more of a breakfast flavor with the potatoes, egg, bacon and
cheese.The tortillas were nicely warmed
and slightly crispy though, and both were worth getting.

I also had a side of the dill potato salad ($2.75) to round
out the meal.I asked the server how it
was and he said good, although very “dilly.”That part was true, and didn’t bother me, but the red potatoes in it
were just a bit too firm for me.It
wasn’t bad, but I think I would get something else next time.

The BFF had the roasted veggie panini ($7.80) which was
quite good as well (well, based on the couple of bites I had). I liked the way the server told her (when she
asked) to get the whole sandwich vs. the half based on the fact that because it
was veggie, it wasn’t as big or filling.
We both agreed that we liked that it had a lot of different veggies in
it—not just the ones you typically see in veggie sandwiches. There were Portobello mushrooms, yellow squash,
zucchini, tomato and red onion, as well as provolone and Chipotle mayo. I also liked that there were no roasted
peppers which to me, always overwhelm any other flavors in sandwiches like
this. The mayo had a kick of spice and flavor
that took roasted veggies up a notch.
The locally made potato chips from the Amazing Potato Chip Company were
really good as well (love that they’re the thinner variety).

A very good experience overall, and a nice place with an
exceptionally down-to-earth and friendly server. Again, I didn’t realize it was more than a
lunch place, but after eating there I told hubby we should give it a go one
night for dinner.

Monday, September 17, 2012

It’s new, so of course I had to try it. I have heard a lot of mixed things—but am
always excited to see for myself, particularly when it is so close to my
house. We met my parents and my sister
and her husband one night for dinner. I always enjoy these meals because my
family knows they have to share whatever they order. They are down with blog participation.

Hubby and I perused the menu before we got there because we
knew we would need lots of time for negotiations—the menu is pretty big. After guessing what my family would order
(with a high degree of accuracy I might add), we decided to go with a meal of
lots of appetizers to share between us.

We started with the tuna tartare ($16) and an order of the
fried calamari ($14) for the table.
Hubby and I mainly ate the tartare and enjoyed it. I liked the way they
had mixed the slivers of fried wontons right into it. It had a fair amount of avocado and was
topped with some crème fraiche. The whole thing sat in a ginger ponzu sauce. I tend to like ponzu—which is soy based with
some citrus mixed in as well. Sounds like it would be a great combo with the
tuna and it was good—it just had a little strange twist of sweetness, almost
like there was some sweet chili oil in there too. But all in all, an enjoyable dish. My family really likes the calamari which is
fried and served with a true sweet chili oil and candied cashews. The calamari itself was really good—very fresh
and really tender. I have pretty much
come to the conclusion that I am tired of sweet chili oil though—it seems like
it is on so many menus these days. It is
certainly a very generous portion and easy to share. If you like calamari, and a slightly sweeter
taste, you will probably like this.

Next, hubby and I split the Shellfish “cobb” salad
($19). I was intrigued by the salad
because it was about as close to a Louis salad as I have seen around town and I
desperately miss them. There was
lettuce, blue cheese, chopped egg, and shellfish—lobster, crab and shrimp. Strangely, the dressing with it was called
“gourmet” dressing—really? Is that a technical name for a dressing? When asked the server told me it was egg and
champagne vinaigrette based and described it as “dull” which I thought was a
little weird. It wasn’t bad, and the
salad contained a whole bunch of my favorite things on a plate, but overall, it
just didn’t seem to mesh together. I am not exactly sure why. I appreciated that they split the salad
evenly between us. I think I enjoyed my
sister’s Ocean Prime house salad better—the dressing (a Sherry vinaigrette with
some Dijon) was very good. The salad had
lettuce, spinach, apples, goat cheese and walnuts. It was well done.

For my “main” dish, I had the goat cheese ravioli appetizer
($11). Even though it wasn’t steak or
seafood, I thought it was the best thing on the table all night. The pasta was housemade (that makes me so
happy) and was stuffed with goat cheese—the broth it sat in was buttery and lemony
and there were also thinly sliced shitake mushrooms scattered throughout, which
added a nice earthy flavor to go along with the sharpness of the goat cheese
and lemon. Even my brother in law liked
it, and he claims not to like goat cheese.

Hubby had the “signature appetizer” crab cake ($16) for his entrée
(you can get it as an app or entrée; he went with the smaller version). I had heard decent things about it and it was
so well featured in the menu, I had pretty high hopes, even though generally
crab cakes bore the crap out of me these days.
This one was not very good—it wasn’t that crabby—more of a flatter
pancake kind of version without much of the crabby lumps I like. Hubby was really disappointed.

We had bites of pretty much everyone else’s food—steak, shrimp pasta, scallops and lobster. It was all cooked
properly (well, the shrimp was a bit tough) and was enjoyed by the people who ordered it. It was pretty classic steakhouse type
food. We also all shared a couple of sides—one
I really liked and one was a bit of a letdown.
The jalapeno au gratin potatoes ($10) were really good—the potatoes were
more shredded, had just a hint of heat from the peppers and lots of Swiss
cheese which was nice. They were cheesy
but not so much so that you felt like you were just eating cheese. They were worth ordering for sure. The black truffle mac and cheese ($12) was a letdown. One of my big pet peeves is when something is
called “truffle” and has absolutely no truffle flavor (but is still priced as
if it does). You can see the two slices
of truffle in the picture, but that is the only evidence of truffles. By looking at the picture you can taste the
truffle flavor as much as I could that night.
The mac and cheese wasn’t a bad basic mac and cheese, but I was sad
about the truffles.

Desserts were good as well--hubby and I shared the peanut butter pie ($9) (we have a peanut allergy in our house, so we never have peanut stuff in the house, so it always seems extra decadent). It was really very good. I am not sure I would call it a "pie," but regardless, I would say it was tasty. It was basically peanut butter mousses covered in a dark chocolate ganache. The middle was very light and soft and the chocolate super rich. Like an amazing peanut butter cup.

Overall, it’s a nice place, very popular with some
highlights on the menu for sure. The
interior is nice, although many of the tables are kind of cramped together. They have a great looking outside bar area in
which I would enjoy grabbing an appetizer and a glass of wine some time. There
are definitely ups and downs food-wise, and it is pretty pricey, so some of the
entrées are kind of risky endeavors if you don’t want to spend a lot. I do like that they have a fair amount of
non-steak (and mainly seafood) entrée options.
I would go back, but I would probably stick with appetizers.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

**THIS LOCATION IS CLOSED***I was excited about an independent casual restaurant opening
near us in the Fashion Mall area (it’s over by Kohl’s)—we are always looking
for nearby places to take the kids for lunch. There are about 1000 chain
options, but obviously we prefer to go to a locally owned place if
possible. I have never been to the
branch of Detour in Carmel, where it started, but I was looking forward to a
possible new option.

The first thing I noticed about the place was how sort of
corporate it looked—the inside is very clean and well, I don’t know, kind of
generic I guess. You order your food at
the register and then a runner brings it to you. The menu is pretty straightforward—burgers,
sandwiches and wraps with various fried side dishes. I opted for the “hard hat” sandwich which
they describe as “a grilled cheese with a twist” ($9.99). It has 2 kinds of cheese, tomato, avocado and
ham and is served on sourdough bread. I opted to go without the ham because if
I am having a grilled cheese, I want a grilled cheese, not a ham and cheese
sandwich. Also, I am particular about my ham. Ok, so for $10 I was expecting a
pretty big and gooey grilled cheese sandwich. I was imagining a fairly thick
homemade type of sandwich with lots of stuff.
Well what I got was a sandwich that reminded me a bit of a school
cafeteria. There was thin small bread
with a couple of slices of cheese, a couple of very thin (and have to say
fairly flavorless) tomatoes, a couple of slices of avocado (it was ripe though
which was good) and there really isn’t much more to say. It wasn’t gooey, it wasn’t memorable. It wasn’t worth $10 (and an extra $.99 to add
the tater tots). The tater tots were as
good as they get. I mean, every now and then they sound good and this was one
of those days for me. But again, it
added to the whole school cafeteria vibe.

Hubby was trying to be healthy and ordered tomato basil soup
($2.99) and a salad ($3.99).I can tell
you he was very annoyed by the salad. It was pretty small.He kept comparing it to a garnish. And the dressing
(Yuzu-ginger vinaigrette) was really oily.He thought the soup was decent—he really likes tomato basil soup. I
tasted it and it was fine. Basic, nothing fancy, but good enough if you’re in
the mood for tomato soup.

So my daughter just wanted a plain cheese quesadilla, which
wasn’t on the kids menu, but they do serve one that is on the regular menu that
comes with all kinds of other stuff inside—chicken, beans and peppers.She didn’t want any of this stuff and they
made it for her, but still charged us $10.99 for it (which is expensive in my
opinion either way you look at it).I
didn’t realize this until after hubby had paid and told me that our bill was
like $42 or I would have made her get something else. My son had mini corn dogs
($5.99) which were standard food service type.The fries that came with were pretty good—they leaned toward the thinner
side with a bit of skin on them.

They also have this super fancy soda machine that you can
use to mix up 100s of different flavors of soda (say you press Coke, you can
get it flavored with like 6 other flavors as well if you want). My kids (and I am sure most kids) found it
intriguing and wanted to play with it A LOT.
I found it a bit annoying since they don’t drink soda. You can get lemonade flavored many different
ways as well. The drinks (for adults) are $2.

So all in all, I feel like this place is really expensive
for the quality of food you are getting. I don’t know, maybe the burgers are
better, but based on our experience, I doubt we will be repeating, no matter
how much the kids want to play with that soda machine. I did notice on the back of the menu and
their website that they are looking for people to franchise the restaurant, and
to me, it has the feel of a chain already even though it isn’t. And I think they are charging a bit too much
to make it really a fast food type option.

***Note, since publishing, Detour Express has left a comment that they have lowered prices on many items.

Monday, September 10, 2012

After having a friend tell me that he really liked Tiger
Lily, and since I haven’t been back since my first
visit shortly after they opened, I met my friend wibia there for a quick
lunch the other day. My friend who had
recommended I go back told me that he really liked the hot and sour soup so I
ordered that to start ($2.50). It was
very good. It was very full of all the
typical hot and sour ingredients (bamboo shoots, mushrooms and lots of
tofu). I liked that the veggies were
still fairly crisp, but not too crisp and I loved all the tofu in it. It also had a decent amount of acidity from
the vinegar (sour) and just enough of the spiciness (hot). Our only complaint (we both had the same soup)
is that it wasn’t very hot temperature-wise.
Not cold or anything, just not hot.

So after ordering what I wanted, which was a noodle dish,
our (very pleasant) server came back to tell me they were out of it. I went with garlic chicken ($6.50), which is
sort of a standby dish for me at Chinese places. I am bummed I didn’t get to try the noodle
dish because it sounded more interesting, and honestly, I wasn’t very impressed
with the chicken. It was slices of white meat chicken with water chestnuts and
mushrooms in a garlic sauce. One of the
things I didn’t like about either of our dishes was that there was very little
of the “sauce” other than what was directly on the meat. There was steamed rice with it, and there
wasn’t enough of the flavor/sauce to make it onto the rice. The chicken was also a bit dry on the inside
as well and the garlic sauce a little bland. Maybe if they gave a bit more of
it.

Wibia had the pork bulgogi and I thought it suffered many of
the same problems—it was dry and had little “sauce” to it… in other words, just
not a lot of flavor. I do appreciate the crisp little egg roll and crab rangoon
they give you with your lunch. I liked
the egg roll because it was nice and crispy (it is on the small side) and not
overly filled with stuff. The crab Rangoon
was fine, but I have rarely met one that got me excited (not my favorite thing—cream
cheese just doesn’t belong many places for me besides spread on a bagel).

Anyway, it was fine, and I liked the soup, but I wish I
could have tried the noodles. So far
none of the rice dishes have made me overly interested in returning and I have
a feeling it may be awhile again before I do.
When this place first opened, there was a lot of buzz about it, but less
so as of late. Are there still some of you that are regulars? Love to hear what you think.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The other day we took the kids on a trail ride at Ft. Ben
(my daughter is OBSESSED with horses), and I took the opportunity to find
somewhere new and nearby to try for lunch. (By the way, thanks to my twitter
friends for recommending both ideas.) We
had a great time on the horses (the trails are quite pretty) and headed over to
Café Audrey afterward, which is right on the Fort property. I had checked out the menu beforehand, and
noticed they offer Broaster® chicken, which is a type of fried
chicken cooked in a pressure fryer. Of
course, if there was going to be fried chicken, I was going to have to try it.

The interior of the place is cute—it is one of the old brick
fort buildings and is full of mismatched tables and generally friendly
servers. It wasn’t totally full, but was
doing a decent business. As soon as we
ordered our drinks, I ordered the 2 piece chicken meal ($7.29) because it takes
like 20 minutes to cook. After the kids
and hubby pondered the menu, they settled on chicken fingers ($5.99), a chicken
quesadilla ($6.99), and the pork tenderloin sandwich ($7.49).

So the fried chicken was only ok unfortunately. They served a breast and a leg—the leg was
pretty tender and juicy, but there was really little flavor to the crispy
outside. I will say, I don’t think I
have ever had hotter (temperature-wise) fried chicken in my life. The steam that poured out of it was
intense. The breast was dry (sigh). They served it with these battered potato
wedges that were somewhat interesting—but pretty sure they probably aren’t
making these themselves. They were okay,
but nothing that makes me want more.
There was also a biscuit that sadly was also a little dry. I had to ask
for some butter for that puppy.

Hubby’s pork tenderloin was made in house, and I like the
whole using crushed cornflake crust (therewere some whole cornflakes in there too). I have had a tenderloin with this
kind of crust before at Big
Daddy’s downtown and I use it myself on catfish fingers I make for the kids
a lot. While I really like the crunch appeal of the cornflakes as well as the
slight sweetness, it couldn’t make up for the overcooked dry tenderloin
inside. It was one of those that was
pounded a bit too thin and cooked a bit too long. We had to ask for extra mayo. The sandwich
was served with homemade chips which were pretty good. I have noticed that homemade potato chips are
a big trend these days—too bad more places won’t do homemade fries…but I digress. The chips were on the thick side, but were
still nice and crunchy.

Sadly, my son’s chicken fingers were more tender than the
breast on my fried chicken, and were more seasoned as well. I say sadly because they were foodservice
chicken strips and not housemade. My daughter had a chicken quesadilla and a side of black beans. I didn’t try it, but it was a nice
presentation with lettuce and tomatoes on top.

All in all, it is a cute place that as hubby says, “is
trying hard.” I am sure this neighborhood could really use
a good independent restaurant serving fresh made food. I don’t know, I would be interested to try
breakfast—it seems like a place that might be able to pull it off. Honestly though the day we went was the first
time I had ever heard of this place. Have any of you guys been there? Have you tried breakfast? Of course I would love to hear about it.

Monday, September 3, 2012

I feel like all I have done this summer is travel. I also feel like I have written a ton of
posts lately that are not about Indy restaurants because of it. Bear with me; this will be the last one for a
bit. We did a quickie trip
to Chicago a few weeks ago and here is a brief (ok, brief for me) summary of
where we ate.

Quartino

We were meeting an old college friend of hubby’s and the
first night we went to Quartino. It is a
loud, buzzy Italian place with a pretty wide ranging menu (good for kids, whom
we had with us). Honestly, I found
everything to be fairly average – the cheese/charcuterie plate ($25) was fine,
the heirloom tomato salad ($7.75) could have stood a little more flavor
(people, tomatoes should be AWESOME right now or you shouldn’t be serving
them), and the Rustica pizza (with potatoes, pancetta, rosemary and onion)
($12) was bland (I think there were like 6 pieces of rosemary) and should not have
had a red sauce on it in my opinion. We
also had a mushroom risotto ($11.50) which was ok—it had balsamic in it giving
it more of an interesting flavor than many risottos—I appreciate the acid in
what is often a ridiculously heavy dish.

So with all of these things, they weren’t really wowing
us—but luckily we had also ordered the steamed clams ($11.75). Wow, these
things were great. They were the little
teeny clams that I often dream about and have pretty much only had in Italy I
think. I had begun to think they were
impossible to come by in this country or something. They were in a white wine and chili broth
that was also outstanding. It had a ton
of the actual wine flavor (I find many shellfish broths to be pretty watered
down) and a touch of heat. They were served
with great pieces of grilled bread that completed the dish perfectly.
Seriously, I would go back to this place just for the clams. Oh, and the zeppole for dessert ($5.50). They were great as well—super puffy and
hollow freshly fried doughnuts with a dark chocolate sauce. That would be a great little meal
actually—clams and doughnuts. (Hubby says that's gross. Whatever).

Rustic House

The next night we did a meal with just the adults at Rustic
House. Our friends had read about it in
a magazine and wanted to check it out.
It has a nice vibe to it—not a huge place that was pleasantly full of
people, but not so loud that we couldn’t talk.
Food-wise, this place impressed us more with the appetizers and then went
a little downhill overall. The
wood-grilled octopus ($13) was great—it was perfectly cooked with just a little
smoky flavor and was served with tomato confit and chopped olives. Perfect salty/acid combo with the octopus.
The wood grilled oysters were good too ($15)—although very cheesy. They had a slight spiciness from Cajun
flavorings and were tempered with a bit of lemon. The handmade gnocchi ($15)
was pretty good too—there was a parsley broth and a few (like 3) little pieces
of foie gras. A little more of the foie
would have made this dish better—I know it is an expensive ingredient, but not
THAT expensive. The duck fat marcona almonds ($5) were kind of a
disappointment. They sort of just tasted like oily almonds.

I actually had another appetizer for my main—the baked
shrimp with white wine and garlic butter and panko. They were disappointing and
overcooked (and expensive at $16 for what was 2 or 3 shrimp). Hubby had the
special prime rib ($36), which he ordered medium rare and got served medium at
best. It was supposed to be cooked on their rotisserie, but I could see nothing
that made it special. Our friend’s lamb T-bone chop was much better—it was
perfectly cooked and tender. But I only got a bite, so I can’t talk too much
about it. Our other friend had an interesting swordfish “chop” ($32) that hubby
liked better than I did. I thought the fish was pretty dry. We also had a side of the corn crème brulee
which was interesting, but honestly should have been a dessert, it was so
sweet. It was pretty much a smooth cream
based dish with a slight corn flavor that was sugared and caramelized on top
just like crème brulee normally is. The
actual desserts were the weakest link of the meal. Completely not worth the
calories. The peaches in the peach crostada ($10) were practically crunchy they
were so under ripe. The blondie brownie ($10) was fine, but nothing overly
memorable. Overall, I thought this place
was very hit and miss and the misses were kind of bad. Don’t think that I would repeat this place,
although you could luck into a really good meal if you happened to order right.

Table 52

On the last day we had brunch at Table 52, Chef Art Smith’s restaurant. This was my favorite meal of the trip. The menu looks great, but there was fried
chicken and waffles ($24) on it, so it was pretty obvious what I would be ordering. That chicken, it was outstanding. Super juicy
(even the white meat) and the crust was crunchy and had just the right amount
of seasoning and spice. I mean, just
look at it. It is a thing of beauty. Honestly, who even needs the waffle? (Well, my son ate most of mine while I
focused on the chicken). Hubby had the
breakfast pizza which was also outstanding ($14). IT was a pretty large pizza crust (certainly
shareable) with sawmill (or sausage) gravy, loads of cheese and bacon, and a
couple of perfectly runny eggs on top. The flavors were great—I was questioning
the whole gravy thing but it was perfect. You could really taste the smoky
sausage flavor. We also had a side of
mac and cheese that we all shared (there were 8 of us) ($12). Also really good—several kinds of cheeses and
a crunchy breadcrumb top. Everyone
really seemed to like this. The only
downside of the place was the service was a little slow which you seem to
notice more when you are dining with several children.

This is a place that takes comfort food to a new level and a
place that appeals across the board to just about everyone. They even have a “healthy” section on the
menu if you don’t want to indulge in all the calories. But if you are going here, I highly recommend
you indulge. It was totally worth it.

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